A fine morning, an employee named Rupesh, who’s worked with an organization more than 5 years got a call from his HR executive asking him to resign from his job, otherwise, he will fire him. Also adding that he has no option other than to resign if they will terminate/fire him, then it will add a negative remark on his profile, also confirmed that he can’t approach the higher authority as well. She will carry out all the exit formalities with a good mark in his experience or relieve documents.
He didn’t even get the chance to ask the reason for his termination. He was not on a performance improvement nor he was not a non-billable resource. Is this the right way? What, the employer did to him for his valuable service over the years. Is it the only solution left to the employer to remove the redundant employee? What can be done? How can employer justify their employment and also run the business smoothly?
Cautions to take by the organization:
With respect to the above situation, you can consider that there is no proper plan in an organization for maintaining the redundant employees and execution of layoff process. It’s very important for any organization to take care of their employees, otherwise its effects on business growth and also it ruins the brand of the organization. No employees want to work with an organization, who can’t provide security for their job.What are the responsibilities of Top Management to ensure?
- Protecting the Brand value and reputation of the organization.
- Ensure that laid-off employees can be callback when the business bounces back.
- Business impact is lower.
- Make use of effective HR strategies during the transition process.
Role of HR: Prompt and appropriate actions to save business and employees
- Understand the new Outplacement process, which is practiced in many countries to save the business.
- Be prepared in advance to handle this type of situation.
- Focus on understanding the business process and plan effective steps in case of redundancies.
- Analyze the skills of the employee and try to make a transition to the employee within the organization, where their skills can be utilized effectively.
- Come up with an outplacement plan, and get acceptance from the top management within the company budget.
- Help the employee to accept the changes with less resistance.
- Find the right outplacement agency for support.
- Train the Manager to handle the situation.
- Carry Out the transition process smoothly without impacting on the career of laid-off employees.
What can HR do?
- Conduct a group meeting with all managers and take a business decision and help them to clear the reason and seek their support.
- Prepare the manager to handle the situation for an effective transition.
- Called for the centralizing meeting so that there is no individual perception of the situation.
- Conduct meeting with the individual/Group based on the situation and clear the reason behind that change.
- Allocate the budget for outplacement support, which comes under severance package (Mandatory/Optional) to impacted individuals (Adding an outplacement service in severance package will build the trust of employee on employer and they love to work with the organization, it was implemented in other countries and in India, there is no awareness of this HR function, need to educate them, how it helpful for both the employee and the employer to grow in the near future).
- Provide a separate plan for individual laid-off employees based on their level and the demand of the market. Usually
- One-month support for Junior Level positions having 1-4 years of experience.
- Three-month support for Mid-Senior Level positions having 5-10 years of experience.
- Six-months and above support for Senior and very Senior Level individuals.
